Removing Exhaust Manifold Issues

[nathan chase]

Dear all,
I have a leak in the exhaust manifold flexible pipe section. I got a used manifold from a wrecker. I have two problems as I try to remove and replace my manifold.

1. The EGR tube that links into the manifold is so stiff I can't get the manifold out. Despite getting the fitting nut loose it doesn't seem like the pipe will bend at all to come out of the manifold and let me thereby remove the manifold from the car. Do I have to detach that pipe from where ever it T's into the intake just to get enough play? Is that fitting somehow set in? I have detached the pipe to the valve or fitting that is screwed into the manifold itself not that fitting itself.

2. The manifold I got was from a 98 v70 and their isn't a EGR connection on it. Should I just cut off the flexible pipe section and weld it to my manifold? Can a novice welder make a good enough joint or will it just fail? unfortionatly I bought it out of the area and can't return it.

Thanks,
nate

[Ozark Lee]

As far as the removal goes, once you finally get some sort of wrench to fit the exhaust manifold side of the EGR that will actually have enough clearance from all of the rest of the crap that is in its way to get it loosened up you just need to pull the EGR line, really hard, to get it away from the manifold itself. The EGR line is stainless steel and it really doesn't want to bend.

As far as the other part goes (where you don't have an EGR port on the replacement) you are in real uncharted territory. The part just above the flexible joint is where the pipes all meet together so I am having a hard time figuring out a way to cut and weld it. If the flexible joint failed on your's like it did on my son's car there isn't a heck of a lot of metal to try to weld things back together again anyway - it is paper thin after the miles and the heat.

If you aren't subject to smog tests and you can live with a constant CEL just forget about the EGR.

A good muffler shop might be able to transfer the old port to the new manifold but I have no idea what they would charge for such a procedure.

I bought an OBX Racing header to replace the same exhaust break my son's car and EGR was the biggest PITA in the whole deal while replacing it. The OBX Racing header has the EGR port at a completely different angle and setback from the OEM and it took several hours of fighting to bend the EGR line to get things mated back together on the EGR side.

The good news about the OBX header was that it was only around $200.00 off of eBay and, other than the EGR issues, the quality of construction was great.

...Lee